1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to a high-speed personalization machine.
2. Related Art
Personalization machines for portable objects such as microchip cards and, in particular, so-called smart cards, i.e., cards which incorporate a microprocessor or microcalculator, are known.
In the personalization machines of the prior art, several fixed personalization stations (which a manipulator arm supplies with smart cards to be personalized) are used. The drawback to this kind of device is that the number of personalization stations is limited by the speed of the manipulator arm, which has to transport the cards from a prehension station to the personalization station and then, after personalization is performed, pull them out in order to put them back into the production line. One of the effects of this technology is that the production rate is limited by the speed at which the manipulator arm moves to the personalization stations.
An attempt has been made to remedy this drawback by placing at the outlet of the production line several personalization stations that operate in parallel. To be sure, this approach makes it possible to achieve acceptable production rates, but it has disadvantages for the personalization of cards that are intended for certain applications in which each personalized card includes a number and in which the sequence of the numbers is supposed to be continuous. In this kind of application, the management of incidents in the above-mentioned technology quickly becomes complicated, and in practice it becomes necessary to reduce the number of personalization stations in order to be able to deal with incidents, thus reducing the production rate.